Visioning Process

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

The Board is working to finalize the District's next Five Year Plan for 2012 - 2017 - The Spring Branch Plan. As part of the process, the Board is seeking community input at 4 community forums, beginning tonight at 6:00p at Stratford. Additional information is contained in the email I received below.

___________________________________________________________

Dear SBISD Parents and Community Members,

Reminder! The first of four Spring Branch Plan 2012-2017 Community Forums is this evening.

We hope you will join us at one of these important community events to learn about the Spring Branch Plan 2012-2017 and share your thoughts about the proposed plan.

Sunday, January 09, 2011

I have posted a number of times about the brilliant work of Sir Ken Robinson who has spoken eloquently about the need for changing education to allow for creativity in schools. For the past several months, he has been taking questions submitted through Twitter (#askSKR) and posting video answers to the questions. Here are all seven of the questions and answers:

#askSKR Question 1: Value of Diplomas & Degrees

Thank you to @AsideBeside for tweeting the question: “In Jan.04 US college grads unemployment rate exceeded that of high school dropouts. What does this mean for diplomas and degrees?”

#askSKR Question 2: Assessing Creativity

I was recently asked a few questions about assessing creativity on Twitter. Thank you to @Joe_Bower and @sebnetta for the questions: “Is it at all possible to grade a creative mind? What would be more suitable to do?” – @sebnetta “If measurable outcomes are least important result of learning, how do we redefine accountability based on the unquantifiable? – @Joe_Bower

#askSKR Question 3: School Subjects

Here is my response to a question asked on Twitter by @CoreyScott: “How do you feel about the actual subjects covered in school? What should the youth really learn and study?”

#askSKR Question 4: Educational Hierarchy

Following my video about school subjects, here are my thoughts about Educational Hierarchy.

#askSKR Question 5: Finding your Element

I’ve been asked several questions about finding your Element. Thank you @Sian327 on Twitter for asking me: “Surely not everyone who is aware of their element will necessarily find the success they desire?”

#askSKR Question 6: The journey to your Element

I’ve received questions and feedback from readers looking for guidance on finding their Element. Here are a few examples of those questions: “Is there something positive about seeking to find your Element, as it feels pretty frustrating to me?” -@gentlemandad “What steps can someone take if they are not lucky enough to have discovered their Element, but want to do so?” – @NicolaArnold

#askSKR Question 7: Rigour and Rote

Thank you to @TheWestWingMan for his question via Twitter: “Will creativity suffer in and education system of ‘rigour and rote’?”

It is my opinion that never in the history of mankind have we seen the type of hyper-accelerated change that we have seen in the last 25 years. In the nearly 4 years that I have been writing this blog, I have posted many times about what this change means to today's students. (some of those posts are available here). It has been this idea of accelerated change that has formed the basis of much of my thought process and work on our Board. I believe the quote above succinctly captures why I have done so.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

AARP ran a contest in 2007 called U@50 that challenged young people to submit videos describing what the world would be like when they turned 50. You can access the winners here. The video below, which finished second, is my favorite. I found it to be extraordinarily creative and meaningful.

Monday, March 23, 2009

On July 7, 2007, I posted Did You Know 2.0, which graphically demonstrated the impact of global competition on today's American children. Below is the latest version of Did You Know, released at the end of 2008.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

I am beginning what I hope will become a frequent feature on this blog -- the Guest Author. If you would like to contribute, please email me your proposed post.

Here's the first Guest Author post from Tim Skaggs, Program Consultant for the American Leadership Forum:

The 2008 ALF Convocation was a wake up call for many of us. I don’t know about you but I left feeling like I know very little about how to connect with this generation of Pre K – 12 learners. David Warlick did a great job explaining why my 19 year old son hated high school and why he’s not alone. Since Jeff discovered on-line college courses he’s pulling a 3.5 average and can’t seem to get enough. He lives and works in one state, goes to college in another and is not having the “college experience” that I so highly treasured. His educational experience is so vastly different from mine that I can hardly relate to it. If you liked David Warlick’s futurist presentation at convocation you will love Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson.

As educators, you may never have heard of Christensen, Horn and Johnson before because they don’t typically write about education. Disrupting Class will be found in the business section of your bookstore (if you still use one of those outdated stores that have books sorted into sections.) The authors’ business perspective on the future of education is beautifully aligned with the world foreseen by David Warlick.

Disrupting Class is less a prescription of how to solve public education’s ills than a look into a crystal ball. It is a forecast of what will be, not what might be if we all do the right things. I also found it refreshing that Christensen, et. al., don’t blame schools, parents, teachers, kids, administrators, legislators or unions for the state of public education although each could certainly take a healthy serving of the blame pie. They actually make a pretty good case that public education has done a decent job of meeting the changing and compounding demands that have been put on the backs of schools. Given that we are one of the only nations to be so bold as to attempt to provide a quality education for every child we have reason to feel good about ourselves.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

I have previously posted a number of websites that offer high quality, free university lectures (here, here, here, and here). Now comes another site, Lecturefox, which brings you many Ivy League University lectures on sciences, psychology, economics, history, and philosophy. Many of the Lecturefox lectures include not only audio, which is common on other sites, but also video.

Lecturefox is a free service. You can find high-quality classes from
universities all over the world. We collect without exception lectures
from official universities, and we have a special interest in lectures
from the faculties physics, chemistry, computer science and
mathematics. In the category “faculty mix” you can find miscellaneous
lectures from other departments like electrical engineering, biology,
psychology, economics, history and philosophy.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Today I came across The Partnership for 21st Century Skills which I think has accurately stated one of the main things missing from today's high stakes testing regimen, the lack of focus on 21st century skills.

Here is how the Partnership's website describes the issue with one of the best graphics I have seen (click on the graphic to enlarge):

The
Partnership for 21st Century Skills has developed a unified, collective
vision
for 21st century learning that can be used to strengthen American
education. The key elements of 21st century learning are represented in
the
graphic and descriptions below. The graphic represents both 21st
century skills student outcomes (as represented by the arches of the
rainbow) and 21st century skills support systems (as represented by the
pools at the bottom):

21ST CENTURY STUDENT OUTCOMES:

The elements described in this section as “21st century
student outcomes” (represented by the rainbow) are the skills, knowledge and
expertise students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st
century.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I have owned the iPhone since August 2007 and continue to believe it is revolutionary. This week I downloaded a new app that I think is a game-changer beyond what the iPhone could already do - it's the new Google app with voice search.

I have embedded the Google app video below that shows how this incredible app works. Bottom line - you ask it a question or say a phrase into the phone and it runs the search. In my opinion, from an education standpoint, the instant access to information that Google and now this app allow make memorization of dates and facts far less important. It is the context and the concept - the why and how - that are critical.